


Cinder Dies in March

by Soeverlasting



Series: Cinder Dies When Killed 2021 [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Challenge Response, Drowning, Filming, Gen, Killing a character once a month (2021)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 23:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29990616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soeverlasting/pseuds/Soeverlasting
Summary: Once upon a time, in a more honest world, Cinder Fall died on the set of a movie about magicians performing elaborate heists called Now You Don't.
Series: Cinder Dies When Killed 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133063
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1
Collections: Killing a character once a month of 2021





	Cinder Dies in March

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Drowning

Once upon a time, in a more honest world, Cinder Fall died on the set of a movie about magicians performing elaborate heists called _Now You Don't._

She was brought in after the previous actress, Pyrrha Nikos, got pregnant between films in this somehow successful series. Cinder's character is a magician who takes off her clothes before doing illusions. Her male co-stars had actual, if improbable skills, such as sleight of hand-to-hand combat and perfect voice mimicry. But hey, Cinder wasn't going to complain about getting work.

It was a routine escape illusion. Cinder, wrapped entirely in chains, would be submerged in a tank of water and she had to try to escape before she drowned.

Naturally, she wasn't in any real danger because there was an emergency button on top of the tank and a professional diver on standby with a tank of oxygen nearby.

Cinder spent months preparing for the stunt and trained with real stage magicians to get the illusion right.

Nothing could go wrong.

In this particular scene, she was supposed to undo the chains and escape before the tank of piranhas would drop down from above and eat her alive. There wasn't any fish. Those would be digitally added in later.

But the chains and her escape would be all real. The chains were real iron. Cinder was a dedicated method actress and insisted on authenticity

Why would Cinder do this?

Well, please consider her upbringing. Adopted into an abusive foster family, consisting of a stepmother and her twin daughters, and essentially made into a slave. She's gotten good at pretending to be someone else in order to escape that mundane and tragic life.

As soon as she became legally an adult, she left that cursed hotel and made her way to Los Angeles

She naturally did what everyone else did in the Industry and backstabbed and slept with anyone to advance her career.

That's how she got the part for this movie. Long sure does love brunettes with a mean streak. The movie was simply too absurd to be taken seriously but the vulgar masses would love it.

With the clank of the slate, the scene began. Cinder sank into the tank. The water was cold and muffled her senses. She pretended to struggle a bit before undoing her chains.

Something's wrong. These chains were different than the ones she practiced with and they became tangled, dragging her to the bottom.

She just worked herself into a shoot.

Cinder could no longer hold her breath and the water started entering her lungs. Her whole body was starting to get heavy. She was stuck on the bottom of the tank. The emergency button was on top of the cage, which felt like a million miles of away now.

Cinder pounded on the glass, trying to get some help, throwing her whole body against the glass, trying to topple it over but the structure was simply too large for her.

Unfortunately, the scene called for her to panic before performing her miraculous escape. So no one could tell if she was really drowning. Not the extras, not even the director.

Cinder's preference for method acting was well known, just as much as her way around the casting. couch. They saw her struggle in the water and her eyes growing wilder and almost pleaded to the cast and crew to let her out.

Cinder continued to drown. The water most certainly entered her lungs and all the air in her body is all but gone. Darkness almost consumed her.

She kept trying to signal the emergency diver for the oxygen and then she spotted them.

He was way off in the corner and was just sitting there staring at her. Cinder wanted to shout but couldn't. What was he waiting for?

Then Cinder got her answer. The "diver" took off his mask and revealed a pair of crimson eyes and a swath of jet black hair.

Raven Branwen, Taiyang's wife. She must've knocked out the real diver.

Cinder understood everything now.

Cinder realized this day would come. A receipt for all the backstabbing and seducing she did to get the top, but she wasn't going to accept this fate.

Using all of the strength and intelligence that got her here, Cinder pulled up to the tank hoping to get to the emergency button, so could sue that bitch for attempted murder. Water was filling her lungs faster than ever before and her head was getting heavy.

The EMTs declared her dead by one and it made all the gossip rags. The film, callously still released, was driven by the controversy surrounding Cinder's death. The death was officially ruled an accident but some people insisted it was murder. A story for another time.

Audiences were disgusted and the film bombed at the box office, killing the _Now You See Me_ franchise.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the real near-death experience of Isla Fisher on the set of "Now You See Me" and Dan Harmon's rant about the franchise on Youtube.


End file.
